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Satori

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Everything posted by Satori

  1. Thank you WTM people for letting me know there is no grade 6 HIGs. I knew I could count on this forum to find the answer! Yes, we're still using Singapore Math as after-schooling, but my daughter goes to public school now. I still check in on these forums every few months. She makes me after-school her because she doesn't learn as much in school as we did at home.
  2. Real Science Odyssey is always a good choice, but for Chemistry, we've been using Mr. Q Science - Chemistry. For some reason my daughter likes to read the quirky chapters better than me reading aloud a paragraph and doing some hands-on stuff.
  3. I remember you ~AprilMay~. :) I'm just afterschooling now, but it seems that the home education we're doing is more important than ever, now that my dd9 has experience in an actual fourth grade classroom. (A few of the spelling words last week were 'dog' and 'write'.)
  4. I was wondering if there was some rules against certain avatars when mine was deleted. I re-added it though, as I took the picture. I would understand for safety reasons if there was a rule against adding your children's pictures, but it doesn't look like there is any. Lol, if you still game, take a screenshot of your character in a game and save it. :)
  5. What a lovely description! Yes, you have a natural, talented writer on your hands. My dd9 loves to write too, all she asks for is new journals and pens. I got her two journals in the past few weeks and at the bookstore all she looks at is the journal section. She sits at her computer in front of Word and works on her stories for a few hours a day. There is a way to sync up MS Word to a wordpress blog, I should ask if she'd like to publish her stories again for people to read. We don't worry about a writing program.
  6. Nice stylish educational posters! If they were like $2.50, I'd buy a lot, but $5 I'd have to choose just a few. My homeschool room has boring bare white walls, so I guess today's the day to brighten them up. :)
  7. I've been using Book Collector. I normally don't use software I install on my pc for something like this, but it does the job, and I can upload our book database to an online website and to my phone/tablet. I do have a scanner I picked up on Amazon, but can also use my phone. Scanner is fastest. :) It's so customizable, I can search my own library for any topic, "checkout" a book, mark how many times we read it, rate it, add our own custom fields and so much more. Every year I print out a list sorted by author and make sure our bookshelves are organized alphabetically as well. I see Delicious Library has a free trial, it does look nice. I think I'll give that a try. I wish they had some screenshots though! Book Collector is doing the job that I need, but I don't think it's so pretty.
  8. Since reading this thread, I found The Fun Spanish on Educents (first time ordering from that site) for only $7.50, a PDF download so I was able to print it out and use it right away. http://www.educents.com/the-fun-spanish-level-1.html We've already been using it a few days, mostly as a verb conjugation review, fast and easy and even kinda fun! I also finally broke down and ordered So You Want to Learn Spanish, I had held back as it isn't easy to find in the states, but I found a new copy on Amazon from a third-seller. That should arrive in a few days, looking forward to checking it out.
  9. Interesting...$1020.00 is pretty pricey without that HBC discount. We've always subscribed every year to Discovery Education Plus, which we get mostly for Elementary Spanish. Just from the intro video they have, it seems the search is pretty user-friendly, giving Elementary, Middle, and High school levels, and within each page, allowing the option to simplify or advance the reading on the topic. Nice that you can view it on tablets, pcs, etc... I'll bite the bullet and give it a try. I'll try to differentiate from Discovery Education Streaming Plus once I have some time with it. Looks like I'll have a login within minutes, but it will probably take a few days to have time to play with Britannica Digital Learning.
  10. After reading Corraleno's post, I'm eager to try the Lyra Rembrandts. If we've been so happy with the Lyra Color Giants and Grooves, I can only imagine what they'd be like! Is the highest set 72 pencils, plus the 12 skin tone and 12 metallics?
  11. Growing up we were inseparable from Lyra colored pencils. I had purchased a huge set of Prismacolors, but it frustrated me that their leads kept breaking. But eventually I tried a new set of Prismacolors and now that is our current preferred, although just the other day I tested the Prismas with the Lyras and they seemed to both easily lay down smooth rich color. I'm sure if I'm was a true artist I'd have more to compare, but to me they seemed the same. :) Lyra is oil based, break less. Retains their points longer so less sharpening. Prismacolors are easier to find a wide color selection set. We'll stick with Prismacolors going forward since with a selection of 150, it is by far more vast a color selection than our set of 18 Lyras. We also have expensive Derwent colored pencils, but in comparison, they always seem dry and rough when coloring. If I could find a huge set of Lyras easily, maybe they would become our favorites. But it's my opinion that both are very awesome. I like to keep the Crayola Twistable (and erasable, they erase so well) colored pencils near the desk for fun colorful homework use. But compared to the above high quality pencils, they are a bit more frustrating to use, as trying to color with them is nowhere near the rich, smooth, consistent vibrant experience with the first two. But hey, you never have to sharpen them and they erase very well! We also like watercolor pencils, just like colored pencils, but brush on them with water and they turn into watercolor works of art!
  12. We started last week with my dd9. Our school has a route for drop-offs to make it easy/streamlined, is there anything like that at your school? The cars coming from the east follow a different dropoff than the cars coming from the west to minimize traffic backups. They also had an informational meeting on the fourth school night to answer such questions I had. For example, on Lightning Day (and Mountain Lion risk days), I was expected to go in through the front door and sign my daughter out inside her classroom. Instead, I was waiting outside in the rain until someone kindly let me know. That night (and info on the class website) cleared up several questions. The long days have been tough, she definitely wants to keep going, but she broke down crying on her third day, saying she was really homesick. She told me she knew it would get better once she adjusted to the longer days. A week later, I can already see it's getting better for her and I believe we're both optimistic about the future.
  13. We've made the same decision this year, my dd9 has already started fourth grade. She just wanted to make some close school friends she'll see everyday. I think I'm more psyched about afterschooling because now we can focus on the fun and challenging stuff. OP: What programming/tech are you doing at home? That's one of the areas we'll be focusing on as well. I plan to use code.org and YouthDigital's 3D modeling course. I have various programming books for kids (and adults) at home, but those resources should be a nice start.
  14. We've enjoyed a lot of various logic workbooks from K-4, but the ones that we've been focusing on exclusively the past few years are Mindware Perplexors (grid-style puzzles), Math Perplexors, Analogy Challenges/Crosswords, Logic Links, and Venn Perplexors (venn diagrams). I think we're rotating through five different variations for variety this year by Mindware alone. Maybe she likes the way each workbook focuses on one skill each? For years K-2 we did a lot of Prufrock Press (like Primarily Logic). For some reason, my daughter didn't like the Critical Thinking Company books, but she eagerly devours the Mindware ones, particularly the grid puzzles of any kind and the venn diagrams for a change of pace.
  15. We've been successfully using (almost every week) Getting Started with Spanish and Elementary Spanish through Discovery Education. My 9 year old just started getting into duoLingo once again as well. I have a degree in Spanish and am actively re-learning it and speaking with friends in the hopes that I can talk much more around my daughter so she can practice.
  16. Yes! It starts today! I've been checking for a few weeks now that we've started fourth grade and over the weekend received an email saying it started up once again. We started watching last year in 3rd grade as a family over dinner. My husband and her love to try to "Shout it Out" the quiz answer, and cheer anytime they cover Colorado in a roll call, lol. Yes, it's designed for middle and high school ages, but we haven't had an issue yet with the content they've shown. I'd end this post with some clever puns if I had the time. ;)
  17. For the price, I can't complain. It's in the style of the workbooks which we've when learning handwriting, how cute! My 9 year old (4th grade) has been typing for years, but I just couldn't resist a typing program from our old HWT curriculum. So I purchased the 3rd and 4th grade programs and started in on 3rd grade, knowing full well it was below her skill level. It's super easy for her, but I'd love to zoom through that year with my daughter and move on to the 4th/5th grade lessons. To spice it up, it looks like they incorporate actual concepts in other subjects. It's a good start from what I've been able to see so far... which isn't much. For me, the parent, the reporting feature is way too simple. I get a Days Count and Activity Count, both of which are simple bars which give me a number. I can't even see the skills she's worked on. I also have a hard time finding out how to get in the website to see the progress reports they do give. I've honestly spent several minutes each day I try to find that login again. Better feedback, a list of skills worked on, wpm data, and a more prominent Parent/Teacher login would make it a bit more valuable to me. I have no idea what I purchased, what she's learning or how she's doing - unless I sit right next to her and watch her do it all.
  18. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly. Wow, I can't believe we haven't read this one earlier, it is so right up our alley!
  19. :bigear: We just started chemistry so I was happy to see this thread and pick up some ideas! We're using both Mr. Q Science - Chemistry and Ellen McHenry's "The Elements". Here's some extras that I just purchased yesterday. If anyone has them already and likes/dislikes them, it might help people thinking of such chemistry supplements. From WebElements.com Magnetic Periodic Table - what can I say, we love our magnetic whiteboards. I also purchased the two chemistry card games under the "related" section - AtomMate and Chemistry Top Trumps (This company is in the UK but they shipped my order out within a few hours of placing my order.) I ordered this Molecular model kit, I'd be happy to get a bigger one later. For board games we already have Periodic Quest and Elementeo. Other fun little things were a Periodic Table placemat with one informational side and one blank/fill-in side, Some Basher books, Theodore Gray's card deck and book, The Periodic Table of Elements Coloring Book ... Thinking of getting this connecting color tiles Periodic Table, but also afraid I might be overdoing it, lol. I think I'm moving in about a month, so we'll save the messy chemistry kits for once we're in a bigger house.
  20. Not a documentary show, but a few years back I found a few books that fascinated me on how amazing bacteria, parasites and viruses are, here's the one on bacteria: http://www.amazon.com/Microcosm-coli-New-Science-Life-ebook/dp/B0013TPV7O/ref=pd_sim_kstore_11
  21. We started GSWS this year and do a few lessons a day, but we keep it very short, as there are other Spanish lessons we do as well. We set it on a timer for 3-4 minutes. That's still time to do a couple lessons. I try to get to it 5x a week.
  22. Yes, my daughter could read those books (in one day) in second grade. We love them, just got the Addy collection this week, as we're studying the Civil War.
  23. We use it on a daily basis. Everyday for Spanish, and every week for mostly history and science, but for other subjects as well sometimes. I'm currently updating my huge list of links directly to the most popular series that we love - Discovery Education Streaming Favorites. I was about to ask what other programs/series/videos people have been enjoying lately. Feel free to add them to this thread or comment on my blog.
  24. This may be a bit outdated by now, but I started a list to some of people's favorites here: http://satorismiles.com/resources/discovery-education-streaming/
  25. We had a late start to this program, but we totally love it! My daughter is a writer, it is hard to get her to do anything else. Ironically, I've never found a suitable writing program for her until now. CAP's Writing and Rhetoric has been so much fun for us to work together on. We're only on Lesson 3 (like I said we started late), but I know we've found ourselves a writing program we look forward to doing every week. Finally! We're using both TM and Student Book.
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